In a display component such as an organic electroluminescence element (hereinafter, may be referred to as an “organic EL element”), a light-emitting diode display component, a liquid crystal display component, or an electrophoretic ink display component, the display element is formed on a substrate and a sealing film is stacked so as to cover the display element. With regard to a conventional display component, a glass substrate has been used as the substrate; however, use of a plastic substrate has begun to meet demands for weight reduction of elements, improvement of impact resistance, producing an large area of element, improvement of production efficiency, and the like (for example, Patent Document 1).
In an organic EL element, the display element is constituted by a stacked body having an anode, a cathode, and an organic electroluminescence light-emitting layer (hereinafter, may be referred to as an “organic EL light-emitting layer”) formed between these electrodes.
A plastic substrate is flexible, is easily available with a large area, and facilitates cutting process to divide the plastic substrate into each component element after laminating a plurality of element members. A plastic substrate disadvantageously has higher permeability to gas and liquid than that of a glass substrate. A display material (in an organic EL element, a material constituting an organic EL light-emitting layer) wrapped with a substrate and an upper multilayer sealing film is easily oxidized and is easily deteriorated when contacted with water. For this reason, when a plastic substrate is used, a barrier layer with high barrier properties against gas and liquid is stacked on the substrate, a plurality of display elements are formed on the barrier layer, and then an upper sealing layer is stacked so as to cover the stacked display elements.
The barrier layer is generally formed with substantially the same constitution and substantially the same material as those of the upper multilayer sealing film and therefore may be called a lower sealing film. These barrier layer and upper multilayer sealing film generally have at least one inorganic layer and at least one organic layer. The number of lamination is determined as necessary, and basically an inorganic layer and an organic layer are stacked alternatively.
Particularly, when a flexible substrate is used, the size of the substrate can be enlarged. Thus, a large number of display elements are patterned to be formed on the large-area substrate, and then these patterned display parts are collectively sealed with a multilayer sealing film. Subsequently, by cutting the substrate, the formed substrate is made into an element unit which is appropriate to the sites where the elements are mounted. The details are described below with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a barrier layer 2 is stacked on a large-area flexible substrate 1 to enhance the gas permeability resistance and the moisture permeability resistance of the flexible substrate (hereinafter, the substrate stacked with the barrier layer may be referred to as a “substrate with a barrier layer”). One or more display elements 3 are disposed to be formed on the barrier layer on the substrate with a barrier layer in a predetermined pattern. A plurality of display parts 4 are formed by this disposition. The barrier layer 2 is formed with at least one organic layer film 2a and at least one inorganic layer film 2b (in the figures, for simplifying illustration, a barrier layer is shown as to be formed with having each one layer).
An upper multilayer sealing film 5 is formed so as to collectively cover the display parts 4 formed on the barrier layer 2. The upper multilayer sealing film 5 is formed with having at least one organic layer 5a and at least one inorganic layer 5b (in the figures, for simplifying illustration, similar to the barrier layer 2, an upper multilayer sealing film is shown as to be formed with having each one layer).
After the upper multilayer sealing film 5 is formed, the formed substrate is cut along cutting lines shown in the figures as alternate long and short dashed lines to be divided into a plurality of display component units, each of which has one display part 4. The divided each unit is mounted on an electronic device to which the elements are applied, such as an illuminating device or an information display device, to be in practical use.
Patent Document 1: JP2003-531745 A